Advice
370 creative works found
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Selling Greeting Cards Through Stores
by Jo O'BrienRecently the topic of selling greeting cards out in the real world has come up in the forums...
Recently the topic of selling greeting cards out in the real world has come up in the forums Having sold greeting cards before through shops and at markets, my humble opinion and experience may be of interest. I’ve got a lot to say on this one so I’ll use headings :) / mren’s ‘somewhere in fitzroy’ Be a Business- Not Just an Artist / What I mean by this is consider yourself a business supplier and demonstrate a level of professionality. Yes it is great if you promote the artistic merits of your work but greeting cards are a very common product and so being organised with an ABN, professional looking invoices, online ordering facilities, fast turn around etc will put you ahead of the (always growing) pack. Like all good businesses, know your strengths and show them off. Provide Good Quality Products / It might sound obvious (I hope it does) but when people are starting out in business they tend to cut corners. In the greeting card business quality is a big deal. This is where RedBubble becomes a huge advantage because the quality of the card printing is so exceptional. Packaging is Important / Have you considered what your cards will look like after 20 or so customers have handled them? Some people like the ‘no plastic’ look and who am I to tell them otherwise. I always individually wrap my cards and make sure that if the packaging prevents the card being openned, that “Blank Card” is printed either on the individual packaging or nearby signage. If you put together gift packs, wrap them beautifully and make sure people know what images they are getting in the pack. / My little tip: leave one copy of each card unwrapped on display and when you check up with the store, see which ones are the grubbiest to identify the favourites Displaying your wares / The things people want to see are the images, the quality and the price. Where possible I use clear perspex stands that do not cover the front of the card. By leaving a few sample cards out of their packaging people can pick them up and feel them to check the quality. I also make sure each card has a visible price on it, on the back, on a removable sticker. Some hints would be not to have too many of a particular card out on display at once. Keep a box of ‘top up’ cards out of sight. If you have a series that belongs together, display them together and perhaps highlight them with different packaging or a small separate display rack. Cards should be displayed with the image facing the right way up where possible. Always put your name and contact details on your card stands- so often they ‘magically disappear.’ And if you are providing your own stands, try to ‘claim’ the space so that other people’s cards don’t get put in over the top of yours. This can be hard to police but for example, having “Cards by Artist ABC” on your stand makes it harder for the retailer to stick any old stuff in there. / ‘legs’ by itsactustus Get Your Pricing Right / Like all things business, a lot of small shops will heckle with you over money and prices. My advice to you? Know what price you want and stick to it. Think about it in perspective, in a typical shop, greeting cards will be close to the cheapest item in there. If the business can’t fork out $30 to try 10 cards then you don’t want to be doing business with them! But also think realistically about your prices. Most retailers will start saying ‘no thanks’ at about $3 a card so to make RedBubble cards (with a base price of up to $3) a financailly viable option you need to sell them as premium art cards worth that extra dollar or two. Considering the quality of them, I believe this is possible. Depending on where you sell them, you could get $4 to $8 or even more per card. It will depend on the clientelle for that particular store. / Common Mistake: Too many people give their cards different prices when in the eye of the customer they all look pretty much the same. If you want to have a premium range, make it obvious Profite Margins / I should add as a separate but related point, most stores will want to mark up by about 100% on greeting cards. Most people sell there cards for a set wholesale price and then let the store charge whatever they like. The only time in my opinion, you should intervene is if you seriously believe they have overpriced them to such a point that nthey are not affordable. But think about it before setting your price. If you ask for $4 per card, can the store onsell them for $7.95? How to actually get them into stores / Here’s an idea for you- send them a card! Of course a rigorous follow up would be required. I would ‘door to door’ with a small sample or my stuff and it worked really well. I also had a bit of a tactic. I’d show a selection of cards worth $20 total. Then when they fell in love with a couple I’d say. “How about you buy this $20 worth from me right now and you keep that one you like for yourself, I’ll replace it with this one” Then I’d pull some other random card out of my bag and add it to the pile. Worked 9 out of 10 times. The other thing I did was band together with a fellow card maker (she did printed ones, I did handmade) so that we could show a greater range and cut our door knocking time in half. Can I also suggest not interrupting businesses during busy periods such as weekends or lunch hours. That happens to me in the gallery all the time and it’s a real pain. Also, if you’re talking to staff and their phone rings or a customer comes in, invite them to deal with the more important thing first and come back to you. Rotate Your Stock / Basically, if it isn’t selling, get rid of it yourself before the store owner decides to get rid of you! I’m exaggerating but the point it still valid. People will stop looking if your display always looks the same so keep it chaging. Make a fuss. If you have a new range, stick a sign up saying “New Farm Yard Range On Sale Now.” And remember, what works well in one store may go really badly in another so if it’s not selling, try somewhere else rather then giving up and throwing the lot in the bin! Consignment / This is particularly just my opinion but I’m against consignment on cards. Especially if you give a choice of what is ordered. Seriously, cards cost so little compared to other things, if a store can’t find $50 somewhere to buy some outright, there is something suss about that right away. It might be good to offer consignment on your first batch which will encourage the store to stock your stuff but don’t get into a habit of it. I would drop off say 50 cards and get someone to sign a consignment form saying how many they were given. Then after a few weeks I would go back, count them up and invoice for however many were missing. Then I’d also give them the choice of buying the remaining ones, or me taking them back. Most would swap a few that they didn’t like and then buy up. Payments / Again I hope this sounds obvious but ask to be paid. So many people get lost in a world of politeness and assume that eventually someone will do the right thing, Most small businesses using MYOB or QuickBooks accounting software will automatically lodge your invoices to be paid within 30 days. Agree on your terms and then chase up late payments. No need to be mean or nasty but a follow up letter and then a follow up phone call is fair enough. Also, be flexible in how you can be paid. Some businesses do everything with a cheque (or for you Americans, a “check”), others will rely on Direct Debit. So know how the business wants to pay you and don’t make it hard for them! Promote your Cards / The beauty of RedBubble cards is they have the URL of your portfolio on the back which shows off all of your work. But also remember to promote your cards out in the real world. Recently I bought a bunch of RedBubble cards and gave them all to friends. The response was amazing. They all got online to find more! Next step for me is to buy a bunch of my own cards and find excuses to give them to people. webgrrl had this awesome idea too. The cards really do speak for themselves so get them into circulation. - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - So if anyone is still breathing after reading all that, I hope you found it useful! / I do tend to ramble when it comes to retail related things- it’s my passion in life. / ‘Tashom III’ by FireRabbit
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6 Quick Tips For Selling Your Art On RedBubble
by Jo O'BrienKeep your portfolio short and sweet. Show only y…
Keep your portfolio short and sweet. Show only your absolute best work and ensure your portfolio can be flicked through in under a minute. People have really short attention spans Use tags. But only use relevant tags which describe key features of the work. Use your journal to give buyers a glimpse into your motivations, inspirations and learning. Don’t put anything negative in it (people can see it!) Remove negative or critiquing comments from under artworks- potential buyers can read them and you don’t want them to be put off Personalise your work by adding meaningful descriptions that tell your audience about how the work was created, what it was inspired by or the story behind it Think about and make a deliberate decision on how much to charge for your art
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Selling Art At Markets
by Jo O'BrienSelling Art At Markets Without repeating the points I made in my Selling Greeting Cards Through Stores...
Selling Art At Markets Without repeating the points I made in my Selling Greeting Cards Through Stores post, here are some of my pointers for selling artwork at markets. It’s going to be another long one so I’ll use headings and give you some pretty pictures to look at on the way :) / Pin-Up Strip Collection – Cards : Freedom by Helen McLean Know The Market You are Attending / Visit the market first! This step is often overlooked and yet it will help you a lot. Some markets can be described as ‘glorified garage sales’ (nothing wrong with that) and others are almost outdoor shopping centres with every convenience. Make a special trip with your stall in mind and ask yourself some questions: What is already being sold? How would you categorise the shoppers? How many people are buying things vs. having a look? How much do things cost there? Is there an entry fee for customers? Have a talk to the current stallholders who will give you the gossip on which spots are the best and how much you can charge for your stuff. Find out about how to get a stall/space. Some markets will ask you to pay an stallholder fee and rock up on the day, others will require a formal proposal in writing and an interview. So find out how to go about it and get advice from current stallholders. By the way, if you’re freaking out about approaching store holders for advice, get over it. Market folk are the nicest people and love a good yarn, just make sure you don’t keep them from their customers. Know Your Target Customer / In an ideal world you would look at your art and work out whom it is best targeted at. Then you would strive to get their attention by stocking your art in places that they go. In the market circuit, things are backwards. You find the market with its existing crowd of shoppers and find a way to sell them what you have. Or you could even make artwork especially to appeal to them. (This is known to some as “selling your soul” – I prefer to call it “paying my bills”) / Since you have visited the market, you have some idea of who goes there. Think about what they are likely to buy and aim to supply it. So take your lovely florals to the nursing home charity fair, your brightly coloured clown shots to the school fete and your super chic city shots to the tourist market. Always have some variety but you can often work out what will be popular before you pay for a heap of printing. / Matilda and Scarlet by Lisadee Displays Are Important / Displays are important. Displays are important. Displays are important. I can’t stress this enough! Most people who sell at markets will at some point learn (usually the hard way) how true that statement is. Think about it before you get there. How do you want it all to look- even if you are artistically challenged like me, draw a picture of how you are going to set everything up. Do you have any space restrictions you need to consider? Are you allowed to hang things? Put them on the floor? Allow people to walk around your allocated space? Are their any other restrictions such as number of displays or tables? All markets have their own (seemingly random) rules so find out before you spend money getting your display units. If you can, do a mock up at home first and see what it’s like from the customers’ side. Some pointers from me on this topic are: / 1) Make sure people can ‘try before they buy’ i.e. can they touch your products to see what the quality is like? / 2) Display things at an appropriate height. Putting your work on the ground degrades its value. If it’s a children’s item, keep it lower, if its wall décor hang it at eye height. / 3) Protect your stock from children, accidents and the weather Packaging / Just a brief note here that in addition to packaging you items to look great, in a market situation they have to withstand the weather. It is also a good idea to have shopping bags so that people can easily carry their purchases around with them. Charge the Right Amount / If you are at a busy tourist market, you can usually set higher prices. As a general rule, I charged 50% more than my ‘shop’ price at tourist markets. Yet at less commercially driven markets you may find the price point has to be a lot lower. You simply have to suss out what is reasonable before you get there by checking out other stalls. The other thing to be aware of is that a lot of market shoppers are out for a bargain. So be prepared for hagglers and decide before you get there how flexible, if at all, you are going to be. You can try and nip it in the bud by having special deals planned ahead of time. It’s also a good point to drop here that human psychology is a wonderful thing and in terms of prices and deals- something displayed in writing will be treated with more respect than information giving verbally. So use price tags and signs. / So Pedestrian by Melody Let People Give You Money / You’re thinking, “Jo, of course I’ll let them give me money- that’s why I’m sitting at this cold, wet market to start with.” But are you really? Are you really letting them give it to you? Do this little task right now, while you’re sitting there at the computer. Pull out your wallet or purse and count how much cash you have. Now think about how much lunch would cost you and deduct that amount, now deduct half a tank of petrol or train fare, which you used to get to this hypothetical market and see what is left. Do you have enough money there to buy heaps of fabulous art? Most people will say “no.” Some will be lucky to break even. What is my point? If you were your own customer, you wouldn’t be buying much- if anything. I can hear you saying “But if I was going to a market I’d get cash out first.” Maybe you would, but, and I mean this in the nicest way, most people will forget. So idiot-proof yourself as much as possible. This might mean knowing where the nearest ATM is to direct people, it might mean having credit card facilities, it might mean having business cards with your online store URL for customers without cash. It seems ridiculous but I have encountered so many customers at markets that simply don’t have cash and therefore can’t buy anything. So have a way around it. / Jo’s little tip: bring a calculator with you. Like They Say in The Scouts: Be Prepared / Make a list of what you need to bring and check it twice. It’s laughable but I’ve seen stallholders forget their trestle table, which is basically the most important part of their stall. So don’t think it won’t happen to you. I know it sounds pessimistic but it’s important to think about what can go wrong. At markets the most common problems are… / 1) The toilet paper runs out in the one and only unisex toilet which is a 5 minute hike across town / 2) You run out of change to give customers- and then you realised none of the stall holders have enough change so you can’t even beg for it, and because it’s a Sunday you can’t get any from the bank… / 3) You are bored stupid waiting for people to start arriving / 4) The weather lets you down. We often prepare for rain but the real killer is the wind and in summer intense sun / 5) You can’t find anything decent to eat for lunch / 6) You need to go to the toilet or eat something but because your ‘help’ is late or didn’t make it, you are literally tied to your stall all day, and the stallholder beside you is too busy to keep an eye on it for you, and you wouldn’t trust them anyway. / 7) You forgot your big warm coat on a freezing cold day or your sunnies on a really bright day. / 8) People keep shoplifting your stuff or even steal your money tin/bag (much more common at markets than in shopping centres with video surveillance) So ask yourself how you will prepare for some of these situations and have a plan. Bring extras of everything and generally don’t feel bad when you can’t even move in your car because of all the stuff you’ve piled in there. When I was doing markets, I prayed for the day I could afford a van. Logistics / Think about all the stuff you need to take and work out how you are going to get it there, set it up and keep it supervised. Can you park your car behind your stall or do you have to move it? Are there strict set up and pack up times you need to consider? If you need to park away from the stall, can you do it securely and do you need to pay for parking? Can your stall be covered if you need to leave it unattended for a bathroom run or are you happy to ask a fellow stallholder to keep an eye on it? And this is a big one guys- What are you going to do with your rubbish at the end of the day? Expect to take it home because the public bins will be overflowing by lunchtime and littering is just not on. / CLOWNS by Mugsy Budgeting / It’s really the first thing you need to do but it scares people so I thought I’d hide it down here at the bottom. When you set up a market stall, you are essentially running your own business and like all small businesses, money, is important. You need to think about what it’s all going to cost you and decide if you are going to make a profit. Let me keep this very simple, the three things you need to think about are… / 1) Things that you buy once to get set up / 2) Things that will keep costing you money as you go / 3) Things that make you money I could write about making budgets all day but I’m trying to keep this post relevant to art. Basically, you want to make enough time to pay yourself back for any major set ups costs like buying new display stands, as well as any ongoing costs, and on top of that you want to make a profit. And please don’t forget to factor in your time. Decide if you are worth $20 per hour or $10 and hour or whatever and include “paying yourself” in your calculations. Keep Financial Records / Another scary one but important one. Keep a list of what stock you bring with you and what you sell. That way when you get home you can determine if anything was stolen or if any money went missing or the wrong change was given. It’s also good to keep a more general record of how much money you are making and what you are spending for each market so that you can see if your business is growing or struggling. It will also show you patterns; for example, an outdoor market would most likely have a quiet period during colder months. I will have to create a separate post about budgeting and financial records because they are both huge areas and very important. For now, my best advice is to get some advice! Oh the irony! I hope that is useful to a few people. And if I made it sound like hard work, well it is. But it’s also good fun. / Nurses by Samantha Thompson
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Taken Canon Rebel Xt / Pro9
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Digital camera sensor cleaning and those rascally rabbits
by Darren StonesCamera maintenance is an important habit to get into, but of course no one has to be too meticulous about it. Hell, housework is certainl…
Camera maintenance is an important habit to get into, but of course no one has to be too meticulous about it. Hell, housework is certainly not my strong point. This morning I gave my baby (Canon 20D) a spruce up. I thought it was perfect timing with the sun shining and a stunning blue sky – just as you’d expect in Melbourne. Of course at time of writing the clouds have rolled in to provide a diffusing effect to the scenery. :) The camera sensor was due for a little dust removal. So, off I toddled with the 50mm prime lens attached and I set the camera to manual mode and proceeded to take exposures at F/22. F/22 is perfect for revealing those dust bunnies. You know the one’s, those darn spots we remove in photoshop and are a right pain in the ass. What fun – not. Anyway, I soon found a big dust bunny had come to the party. The bloody thing was bigger than Bugs Bunny. Huh, that big bugger was in fact on the rear lens element, so after a few exposures rocket science (a brain wave) soon dictated that he/she had to be exterminated with a quick wipe with a soft lens cloth. Done. Onwards we go to a little fiddling in photoshop and a play with the auto levels option. That was interesting to say the least and clearly revealed those dastardly bunnies at their worst. After a few goes at exterminating them I have a relatively clean baby all ready to take for a spin. Above – Sensor before cleaning Above – Sensor after cleaning Above – Sensor before cleaning with auto levels adjustment in Photoshop Above – Sensor after cleaning with auto levels adjustment in Photoshop I use the Copper Hill kit products as supplied by Quality Cameras in Perth. I have no affiliation with them, but can recommend their prompt and courteous service and cleaning kit products. Of course I couldn’t get rid of all the bunnies, so I suspect the mummy and daddy bunny will make more little bunnies for me to exterminate in the future. Those rascally rabbits. Some great info here to assist. / http://www.pbase.com/copperhill/ccd_cleaning And this is the way I do it. / http://www.pbase.com/copperhill/image/71784128 Advice articles can be found on my site here
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Selling Art Through Galleries- My Advice
by Jo O'BrienI recently received an email from a fellow RedBubbler and thought I should share my response… DISCLAIMER: this is just my opinion an…
I recently received an email from a fellow RedBubbler and thought I should share my response… DISCLAIMER: this is just my opinion and advice so don’t take my word as gospel! ____________ Hi Jo, I ‘discovered ’ you on Red Bubble and love your work.. You mentioned you work for a gallery that takes work on consignment. I’m interested in getting some of my work into galleries but don’t know how to. My stuff is here… http://www.redbubble.com/URL So just wondering if you have some advice?? Cheers & thanks, ____________ Hey M First thing is you will notice that the footer of this email has all my phone numbers- please do not hesitate to call me and we can have a proper conversation about this. I have a lot of artists ask me about this and am only happy to help out. I have found that the best way to get your stuff into galleries is to do what you have just done- send an email with a link to your work. Your webiste is basically your CV in the art world – it doesn’t have to be flashy (and redbubble is totally appropriate) but having work that loads quickly is important. You will be lucky if a gallery spends more than 1-2 minutes looking at your site. The other thing you can do is to print out samples of 5-8 images of your work, a biography or artist’s statement and any quirky info that could be used to market you. Put this together into a CV or folio and make several copies. Then you do the door knock thing. If you take this option be aware of a few things- Gallery staff at some places (certainly not us though) can be quite snobby to artists who come off the street and try to sell their wares. I suggest being pleasant but do not try to take up too much of their time. I’m more receptive to a “here’s a copy of my folio, here’s my contact details, i’d love to have a chat some time but obviously now isn’t the best time for you- maybe give me a call if you’re interested?” than a lengthy rehearsed sales pitch. Each gallery will have a slightly different way of doing things. Some will ask for a tax invoice when you bring in art and they will just pay you when it sells. Other will ask for an invoice only once something has sold and they may or may not request a consignment note when you deliver your art. Other places do 90% of the paperwork for you but these are rare. We keep a running file of what work you bring in and if anything gets returned to you because it wasn’t selling. Then if something sells we call or email you the same While I’m on this I should mention that some galleries will not deal with you unless you have an ABN. GST normally doesn’t make a difference but I have heard of a couple of fussy places who have insisted on dealing with GST inclusive artists only- go figure? The other thing that changes between galleries is the mark up of your work. In some of the artist run galleries you can get a 30/70 split of the sale (with the artist being better off). Other places will rip you off majorly and mark up your work by more than 100% and therefore will get more money than you do when it sells. Don’t let people bargain with you for your cut and THEN try to add 10% on for GST- insist on bargaining on the final price inclusive of GST. I make this bargaining process sound difficult but the truth is most places have a policy about how they split things and you either take it or leave it- my advice is more to show you the difference between money grabbing and artist appreciating! Which brings me to my next point- look at the attitude of the gallery. Some places are really picky about what you give them to sell which can mean that they either have no idea OR it could mean that they know their clientelle really well. You just have to be good at reading people to wrok that one out. The places that I would steer clear of are the ones who don’t seem to fussed by what you give them or don’t really care about having a biography or any information about you. They should be interested is selling ‘you’ as a product as well as your stuff. You have to balance out the financial side of things with the personal side. At our galleries we go 50/50 on sales which is considered a bit high. The upside however is that you get a mini cheering squad who will rave about your amazing talents to anyone who glances at your work sideways. We don’t have artists complaining about the higher mark up because we make up for it in branding and promotion you. This is a call each artist has to make for themself. If you’re stuff is considered sellable (which is decided on a case by case basis) we will give it a decent chance of selling- normally I put new stuff on display straight away or in the shop window. Then we see hwat the reaction is. Sometimes we find out very quickly that there is no interest, or everyone loves the image but thinks it is too small, or red, or badly framed or whatever. We aim to have open lines of communcation with our artists so that they don’t keep sending us stuff that no one wants! But in the end if after 4-6 weeks things are not going so well I send things back and invite the artist to try again if they begin experiementing with a different syle or medium. I certainly invite you and any other RedBubble artists to contact me about selling work through our galleries. We are always very keen to see what people have got to offer. Jo O’Brien Work: +61 3 9349 4333 (Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday) Work: +61 3 9827 3338 (Monday)
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André’s creation: eclectic pleasures
by Maxwell EdwardBlack and white keys, saxophone, guitar, everywhere. The music has much more magnificence than can be tried to be explained through words…
Black and white keys, saxophone, guitar, everywhere. The music has much more magnificence than can be tried to be explained through words. This jazzy rendezvous has always been André’s favourite ear-food. He just loves the way its beauty, splendour, radiance is ‘unleashed’. André stares at the canvas for over a dozen times. Here he is staring at the blank space which is future marvel…or was it to be past marvel? Had he missed his chance, missed the boat which would have sailed to sentimental stardom? He refuses to collaborate more than a sentence for any one idea. Any idea that deserves a sentence must deserve no doubt. Any canvas is only worth the greatest ideas. Two André’s exist; though only one at any one time. The withdrawn analytical front, designed for most occasions. On rare occasions the other character may appear, the intensive, massively determined André who acts on impulses. Impulsive André must be begged out. A Pandora’s Box of surprises, his job will at least never cease to astonish. “Dearest André, Through years have you befriended my son Louis, so therefore I am offering an opportunity to benefit both of our interests (with intent towards your gain). Litton inc., my company has stepped up towards mainstream success. We require visual arts for our newly bought edifice. I understand you have been painting for the eight years since high school. To your discretion I would like to require a painting; just one will suffice. I would like something vibrant and colourful, yet deep and meaningful; Contemporise to your own vision. Much thanks, Dr. Raymond Fonck.” The commissioned paper lies stuck on the wall. André has read it. Now it is time for the future. It has been too long sitting around (or rather bouncing around); too get too much productivity from anything. Someone once said to him that anything is good experience. True perhaps, although he prefers productivity, especially in a time of intensity such as this; three days left until confrontation. His vigilant eyes stroll around the room, searching for advice. He is not bored, nor has he painters block, for such a term does not exist and will not ever for him. His eyes strike the clock. The clock glares 5:48 pm back. What a disgusting fierce look it has. Not 5:45, nor 6:00 and only one uncomfortable minute in-between. For at this time these uncomforting three digits add to the frustration in the actual time. “Aw!” André suddenly realizes the importance of the time. It is the one factor which never seems to be on his side but actually encourages his total progress. It is an epiphany like that of a mother to the newborn. André decides to let his hands take / control. They are the secret key, (sometimes the gatekeepers of unleashing impulsive André) His dominant left one picks up the brush (over time it has made up for its fault of statistically losing him seven years). His right hand decides to lose cognition. It dips itself into a little puddle of Sangria oil paint muck. Than it flies onto the near-centre of the canvas, smeared diagonally. His left hand takes initiative once again, waving lines of smudge to and fro. Right hand brings more paint to its destination. Myrtle, Indigo, Olive, Magnolia…and no, not that…Yes, yes, even black! (Well seal brown to be precise). All of these contextually beautiful colours unleashed! There are no thoughts in André’s mind now. This is impulsive André now; organised thought is of little importance! That colour is important here. This colour is unimportant there. A few lines of any colour are important right here or there, but perhaps a darker colour is better. More negative space up and down the edges. Shape is forming. Lines are bolding. Complete non-representational form is diminishing. Visualizations; the visualized images in mind are being…unloaded bit by bit. It is coming about. What is it though? No one knows. If anybody could guess it definitely would not be André. André knows he has the power to bring out the reality in it though. In a seemingly paradox situation he must not connect to reality at the moment though. Now, after these hours of painting, André is in the painting. He would not know it has been hours besides the constant glare of the illuminating digital clock staring from across the room; it unconsciously processes its recognition into André. The phone screams out, ‘br-ring, br-ring!’ Like the other external matter it creeps into André, until finally its screams become too annoying to ignore. It’s too late now…impulsive André has vanished; his conventional counterpart has replaced him. The phone persists though. André decides to take it (typical for his returned mannerism). He dives across the room horizontally attacking the corner where that nuisance phone lies. ‘Aw, aw, aw, aw!’ A tube of paint has squirt from underneath his stomach. Agonising that his material friend can be so painful at times (like any of his life long friends). He picks up the phone; only the tone. He has missed whatever, whoever it was. Once again, missing the boat… Now thought and all that comes with it has returned. Why now out of all times possible? There is only sadness, misery, all this escalated from these small miniscule misfortunes; all has turned to turmoil! What can one do, when feeling like crawling into a hole? His secret minor disorders such as his claustrophobia would prevent him from crawling into that hole, even if he had one. At the moment everything feels like one big hole. Not surprisingly André’s eyes begin doing the only thing they know to do in times of unrest; wander. It is impossible to ignore what is there; it has been there all along, yet has never been seen. It is beautiful! It is splendour! It is radiance!! It is interrupted by another scream of ‘br-ring br-ring’. André picks up the damn phone. Without contemplation he whispers, “Sir, madam, I’m very terribly busy, could you perhaps call back sometime?” A deep sophisticated voice replies, “Raymond Fonck, André. Listen, I need to know about the progress of the painting. How is it going; ready to sell on Friday?” Many emotions garner at the speed of light inside André allows these emotions to clash inside of him. The painting; it is beautiful, splendour, radiance! How could he give it away now, after an indescribable series of emotional contributions? It is something that has not been attempted before; yet it is new but the expression of old. It is everything, at the moment, hopefully containing more interpretive inoculations for the future. It is a subject, of just some time, yet it contains a collaboration of detail separated from time. It is…once again interrupted by screams, this time of another sort; the infuriating talking of man. “André. Are you there?” Feelings of great rebellion sweep André off his feet. He knows how he will revolutionize his life, because after all; this painting has revolutionized his thought already. “Mister Fonck. I am so sorry. Some things have come over me…a type of sickness…although I am sure you are not aware of this mad syndrome I am suffering due to it. Well to the point, I must say I will not be supplying you with your wanted artwork. Thank you for your understanding. Hopefully we can collaborate something in future.” André hangs the phone up without replies, without a stated understanding from the mister Fonck. Without even the knowledge of acceptance or approval from the mister Fonck…it does not matter. All that matters is this new painting, this contemporised vision. It is everything. Most importantly of all, it is…unleashed!
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Photographers - What are you paying for? (Part One)
by Jo O'Brien^Disclaimer: This is not legal advice or even professional advice. This is some stuff I’ve learned along this funny little thing called l…
Disclaimer: This is not legal advice or even professional advice. This is some stuff I’ve learned along this funny little thing called life and may not apply in any way to your current situation. At worst, it’s my opinion, at best it’s some ideas for you to think about. If you need real proper advice, go see your solicitor. I’m of the opinion that photography should make me money, not cost me money. So far, I have been successful is making more from a photograph than it took me to create. Here is my list of not so secret tips and advice on covering your arse and saving your cash. When To Pay There are times where spending your hard earned money is the right choice. For example to obtain goods or services you can not find for less (or free) elsewhere. Or when you have done all the maths yourself and you feel you are buying into a good deal. But there are also some pit falls to watch out for. Art Direction, Ideas and Intellectual Property My rule of thumb, if I am paying to shoot, I should have full rights to everything I take. No ifs buts or maybes about it. If you shoot a commercial, the art direction team put together a shoot and then hire a photographer to take photos of what they and the crew have created. They pay for lighting design, they pay the models, they pay the hair stylist, they pay the guy who makes the coffees- and they pay the photographer. Some businesses operate under a similar model but suck money out of photographers in the process. As part of a ‘workshop’ or ‘event’, several photographers rock up with their cameras and take photos of a scene. Often they have little or no control of the setup, can’t communicate properly with the models and will walk out of it with similar images to everyone else who attended! In the worst cases they have restricted rights regarding how they use their images. So is essence, they have paid for something that out in the real world, would be making them money. Sorry if it sounds confusing, the concept completely baffles me. When you are shooting someone else’s ideas and have restricted publishing rights or have little influence over the set up, posing, lighting or set design, (in my opinion) you should be getting paid by them. After all, you are doing them a favor by taking images of their creative work. Classes or Tuition Wanting to improve you skills and knowledge is a great thing. And there are numerous classes, mentors and workshops available for you to choose from. If you are going to pay to attend these, make sure you are getting what you pay for. Before you hand over any cash there are a few details that you should have to help make your decision. Class Size: The more people attending, the cheaper the class should be. If there is a practical component, I usually wont accept a class bigger than 10-12 / Location & Time: no point signing up for an ‘on location’ workshop only to find it is out of your way. Also as a safety issue, you should always be able to tell a trusted person exactly where and when you will be shooting. / The Teacher: You should be able to find and contact the person facilitating the class to verify their experience and ask questions. It not always convenient for a facilitator to take calls from a whole class, but you should be able to send them an email and get a reply without going through a middle man. / Contracts: Ask if you will need to sign any contracts and insist upon receiving them before paying. / What do you get: do you get class notes to take home? Exactly what does the course entail? What can you hope to know and have learned at the end of the course? Contracts These are a great way to waste your money. They also happen to be very important. First and foremost contracts exists to make people money or stop people from making money. So before signing anything, read it a few times and make sure you are aware of what your actions are costing you. If you need to get images approved before sale or publication, you could be agreeing to never publishing or selling any images taken if none are ‘approved.’ It is completely reasonable to request changes to a contract or write your own and offer it instead. Don’t sign away potential income! You should always be able to take a contract away and show it to other people for advice before signing it, and especially before paying for anything. If you are not given this opportunity, my advice is to avoid it with a ten foot pole. And then there are the bazillion poorly written contracts that mean very little or nothing at all. It’s actually quite funny to me sometimes, what people will put on paper. Useful Links Australian Competition & Consumer Commission / Scam Watch Photographers – What are you paying for (part 2).
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Gimp, fonts, T-shirts - finally, we all seem happy together.
by Gregoryno6I posted a piece on how to do t-shirts a while ago. I deleted it when I realised that a lot of my ideas were wrong, but I think that I ca…
I posted a piece on how to do t-shirts a while ago. I deleted it when I realised that a lot of my ideas were wrong, but I think that I can offer some useful advice this time. The template posted here at RB is what I’m using now. If you haven’t worked with it before the simple way to eliminate the white rectangle and red lines is to click on Select – top left – then All, then go to Edit and Cut. That wipes everything off. I have saved the template in that fashion now. I had a lot of trouble with fonts. Everywhere I looked on the net I found instructions on how fonts could be added to the Gimp menu and I couldn’t make any of them work. My final solution was: a – make sure every font I wanted was loaded into my Windows font folder; / b – uninstall Gimp and the GTK Runtime Environment which it requires; / c – reload the latest versions of each, available here. Maybe I just got lucky, but it worked. All fonts now available. I had created another problem for myself by creating my own template, but this wasn’t an issue until recently when RB changed the production method for the T’s. Effectively I had put all my messages on a white background rather than a clear background. / I found the answer on this page, which gives instructions on how to make any colour transparent in Gimp. If you’re starting from scratch in Gimp and want to do a text T, it’s very simple (he said, having banged his head long and hard over this problem). Once you have the template open and prepared as I described earlier, click the bold T (for Text) on the control panel. This will open a box which will show options like fonts, colour – click on each to display the full range – size of text, and alignment. Click on the point of the template where you want the words to appear. This will open a small window – as you type, the words will appear here and also on the template. The template display will create a yellow boundary around your words. I find it easiest to start in the top left corner and then move the text to where I want it by clicking on the four-arrow icon. This should turn your yellow boundary to white, and the text will move as you desire. Hope this helps. PS: I’ve just used the colour to clear technique to create a negative version of my Amaze T shirt, Amaze T2. ADDENDUM: I posted this piece, Programs I Use, in the forums some time ago. I’ll link to it here for your further consideration.
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Here are 5 great reasons to eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetables A DAY They’re packed with vitamins and minerals. They can help you to maintain a healthy weight. They’re an excellent source of fibre and antioxidants. They help reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and some cancers. They taste delicious and there’s so much variety to choose from. No such advice in the 1980s when all that mattered was the Wacka Wacka Wacka sound of the gobbling yellow circle as you risked RSI and frittered away your pocket money on endless attempts to beat the days high score. How times have changed!
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Simple advice.
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a FEELGOODfx design
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Please view larger to better see the sweet expression on this little Carolina chickadee’s face.
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Ragman's excellent advice on all things arty farty
by Mel BrackstoneRagman has put together some journals covering some basics of doing it right when it comes to ar…
Ragman has put together some journals covering some basics of doing it right when it comes to art/photography. Here are some of the excerpts from his up-coming book. Very worthwhile reading, for everyone, IMHO! I’ll add this to my list of handy tips and tricks, so it’s easy to find from my profile page. Concept / Context / Content / Constructs / Composition / Capture / Chance / Canvas / Camera and Computer / Creative Connection
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This photo of an industrious little wren gathering nest building materials seemed to go well with the verse from Proverbs: Entrust your works to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.
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Selling Photography
by Jo O'BrienThis is based on my experience working at markets and in “painting and sculpture” galleries. I have heard of exclusively photographic gal…
This is based on my experience working at markets and in “painting and sculpture” galleries. I have heard of exclusively photographic galleries (collaborative- not just for a single photographer) which are an easier market but I am yet to find one in Melbourne. DISCLAIMER: The opinions presented in this journal are not a substitute for professional advice and are based on analogical evidence Things that I have found help to sell photography are: / 1) Taking a strikingly lucky, creative and one off image that others would struggle to replicate / 2) Presenting your photos in an original way / 3) Providing support material to the seller about the image and yourself / 4) Signing the image and providing info on the back / 5) Having a variety of photos available for sale / 6) Only having one copy of each image on display Things I have found detract from selling photography / 1) Inferior or unsuitable framing or packaging / 2) You are selling a whole bunch of your images and most of them look similar- or more so, look like you took them all on the same day / 3) No information about the image is available / 4) No image about the photographer is available / 5) I hate to say it but photographers with birthdates in the 1980s should consider omitting this information from their biography because youth = inexperience in the minds of some buyers. The exception seems to be works using a lot of photomanipulation. / 6) Damaged prints or packaging / 7) And it might have seemed the most obvious point but images that are not interesting, or that do not fufil a decorative need There are many ways of presentaion your images including: / 1) Loose prints or posters / 2) Matted prints (and whether to sign the image or the mat) / 3) Canvas Prints / 4) Framed Prints / 5) Putting your images on other products (tastefully) Generally speaking, bad presentation will doom the sale of even the most amazing photograph and that the more creative and unusual your presentation, the more attention you and your work will recieve. Who has some other tips?
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This was some good advice here ….. Pier? What Pier !!! / This image is “As Is”, absolutely nothing done to it, straight out of my new D300, which I think will serve me rather well.
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For some, an unnecessary exhortation.
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Transparent Background in Drawings: How-To
by olechkaI have been getting many e-mails asking about how I convert my drawings from paper to tee-shirts, with a transparent background. Here’...
I have been getting many e-mails asking about how I convert my drawings from paper to tee-shirts, with a transparent background. Here’s how I do it: I scan my drawings, then if needed, I clean them up by erasing extra marks and such. Then I use a photoshop action that can be downloaded here: Link This action is for Adobe photoshop only! How it works: this works only with black/white images (colored images will be automatically converted to b/w), and basically converts everything to black, but the lighter areas become various transparencies of black (this results in various shades of gray when viewed against any background). After you apply the action, you end up with two layers: background (white) and outlines (the drawing). I delete the background layer, and…ta-da!! If I choose to color the design, then I create another layer, and put it underneath the outlines layer, so that the color would go under the black outlines. Note: tweak your contrast and levels BEFORE applying the action, as you won’t be able to tweak anything afterward because your drawing will be technically all BLACK. I tried to explain this as best as I could, and hope this makes sense to everyone. / Feel free to ask any further questions!! Olga Here are some samples of my work where I used this process: 1st one is a pencil drawing, and the 2nd was drawn in pen. / / /
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Forget reality / Relax / Chill / Get lost in books
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The rather sexy model is Jonny / Photography & Post-Editing by me. Canon 450D / F-stop: 5 / Exposure time: 1/40sec. / ISO-speed: 200 / Focal length: 39mm Took this at photography club at school. :) Proper unsure about this one, especially the post-editting. / Put it up for advice really, so yeah, HELP?! How can I make this good?
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Copyright Tabitha L Borges
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Copyrights Tabitha Borges 2007 / http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i124/rose2823/445586-1-wishing.jpg
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